Our Story

Maribeth Vander Weele founded the Vander Weele Group in 2003 after spending years in and around public education.  As an education reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times, she listened to many stories about obstacles to achievement. She documented those obstacles — ranging from classrooms without teachers and buildings in disrepair to lack of sequenced curricula — in an acclaimed book on Chicago Public Schools. Many of her reform strategies were adopted in 1995 when Maribeth joined the school system’s turnaround team. Although later, as Inspector General, she assumed responsibility for oversight and enforcement, she understood that systemic challenges and day-to-day demands on school leaders left little time for planning and compliance. When she launched the Vander Weele Group, her goal was not to serve as an armchair critic, but as a partner in support of leaders.  Today, the firm’s monitoring programs and related services are infused with that vision of providing oversight and support.

Why the Vander Weele Group

We Know the Subject

We've analyzed hundreds of pages of legislation and regulatory guidance to identify standards. We keep tabs on the ever-evolving federal standards.

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We've Done This Before

We monitor sites throughout the country, so we know the challenges and solutions to creating a monitoring program. We understand the logistics involved.

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We're Independent

As independent observers with practical knowledge, we are incentivized to provide you objective and meaningful information.

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We're Wholistic 

We don't stop with identifying non-compliance. Drawing on a broad array of expertise and hundreds of resources, we provide grant recipients with technical assistance to become compliant.

We are here to help

At the Vander Weele Group, we provide turn-key grants oversight programs. Our monitoring team provides Fiscal, Programmatic, and Meaningful Monitoring. Through the collective knowledge and experience of our team, we:

Suggest Best Practices




We gather and analyze data to reveal systemic challenges and suggest best practices so programs not only meet the requirements of compliance,


but are enabled to effectively achieve their missions. We provide the monitoring programs which select standards that drive not only grantee


compliance, but grantee performance.




Provide Technical Expertise



We don't stop with identifying non-compliance. Drawing on a broad array of expertise and hundreds of resources, we provide grant recipients with


technical assistance to become compliant.




Create Meaningful Partnerships



We deploy highly trained staff from our centrally located offices, enabling us to have a broad reach, and work closely with key partners and



stakeholders to devise and enact solutions.




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Enact Solutions




The Vander Weele Group’s success in delivering compliance monitoring services for the State of Illinois, the sixth largest Early Intervention system



in the United States, affords us considerable expertise on program logistics, staffing, training, and reporting to share with our clients. Our



​ monitoring programs identify root causes of non-performance, providing frontlines feedback that drives relevant and practical reforms.